Month: November 2007

SEVERAL firemen had eggs, fire- works and bottles thrown at them as they attended bonfires on Hallowe’en night.

The fire services in Clare had 23 call-outs last Wednesday night, 18 of which involved bonfires. This com- pares with an average of three or four incidents on a normal day.

According to the acting Chief Fire Officer, Denis O’Connell, it was a very busy night. Although there were no hoax calls, he said that the behav- iour of a number of individuals cre- ated trouble for firemen.

“Ennis and Shannon fire brigades ran into a lot of difficulty trying to carry out their duties. Fireworks, eggs and bottles were thrown at crews and many firefighters received a lot of verbal abuse over the evening. Ennis fire brigade had bottles and fireworks thrown at them at a bonfire near Oak- wood Drive, Ennis. They received a lot of verbal abuse and had fireworks thrown at them at a bonfire in Quin Gardens, Quin,’ said Mr O’Connell.

“Shannon fire brigade had timber and eggs thrown at them at a bonfire in Rineanna, Shannon and they re- ceived a lot of verbal abuse and had bottles thrown at them at a bonfire in Newmarket-on-Fergus,” he said.

“It is very regrettable that firefight- ers should have to deal with this type of behaviour while carrying out their duty. Fortunately, there were no inju- ries received by any firefighter on the

night,” he added.

In Ennis, a garda was assaulted as he intervened in a dispute in the Mar- ket area of the town on Hallowe’en night. The garda had to receive stitches to a wound on his face, after he was struck.

Gardai say that a number of nui- sance calls were made over the course of the evening. Overall, how- ever the night was “no busier” than any Hallowe’en night.

Meanwhile, locals in Kilkee were angered after 22 steel rims of cars and trucks were left on the beach after bonfires there on Hallowe’en night. While the rims have since been removed, there are still remnants of

car tyres lying on the beach.

Former Mayor Manuel di Lucia said the situation is not acceptable.

‘There are something like 100 coils of wire still there and they are going to cause problems if they are not moved. Some years ago, a young girl cut her hand after the wire became embedded in the sand and she was playing with the sand,” he said.

“It happens every year but this is the worst I have seen it,” he said.

ANIMAL rescue services have been working overtime this Hallowe’en to help pets who have bolted in terror of fireworks.

Clare dog warden, Frankie Coote said that this had been one of the busiest seasons ever and in just two nights last week, he dealt with 30 dogs that had lost their way in fright.

“It just gets busier every year. I worked through the night on Hallowe’en and Hallowe’en doesn’t just last for one night anymore. There’s nearly a whole month of it, with fireworks being let off and bon- fires being lit every weekend in Oc- tober.”

Stray dogs are still being brought in to the pound and Mr Coote is doing all he can to re-unite them with their owners.

“We’ve got about half of the ani- mals back to their homes but there are still a lot of dogs whose own- ers we haven’t found. We would ask people whose pets have gone miss- ing to contact us – we can’t get your dog back to you if we don’t know it’s TOD Estoy 0 roa

Good weather has exacerbated the dog warden’s difficulties as people have more opportunities to be out-

doors, letting off fireworks.

While most animals are acciden- tally strayed, having bolted in fright at an exploding rocket, one of the more sinister practices of Hallowe’en is for owners to abandon their pets under the guise of them having strayed.

“Some people use the night as an excuse to dump pets and then they are brought in to us.

“It’s a terrible thing to do but there are people who will do that,” he said.

The animals taken in by the dog warden vary from thoroughbreds to cross breeds. Some people who find animals keep them in their homes until the original owner has been found while other dogs are brought straight to the pound.

In the run up to Hallowe’en, pet owners were warned to keep their pets indoors to stop them running away or worse, being snatched by people with cruelty in mind.

“When an animal is lost, it’s very important that owners contact us so that we can help them look for it. We may already have the dog but we can’t keep animals indefinitely so we would appeal to people to contact us as soon as possible,” he said.

Frankie Coote can be contacted on 087-6225253.

UP to 15 books of evidence which are due to be served for criminal tri- als have been lost — they were inad- vertently deleted from a computer in the State Solicitor’s office in Ennis. The “human error” was made by a

Staff member in the office, who was in the process of creating a back-up of files on a computer.

An incorrect key was accidentally hit and the loss was incurred 1m- mediately. The computer was sent to Dublin in an effort to retrieve the data. While some indexes have been

recovered, the books of evidence have been lost and will have to be reassembled.